Thursday, September 18, 2008

Into The Groove (46)

Hello, Fridaynight disco coming up, after last weeks funk, time for someof the dance floor attacks of the seventies/early eighties...some say she invented disco, maybe not as such but her album Never Can Say Goodbye made a big statement in 1975 , side one mixed for the dancefloor and subsequently all three tracks became hits in their own right, amazing feat. Sadly 7 years later she fell victim to a religious fever, meanwhile she kept on singing i will survive and becoming a gay icon nonetheless...strange...Niteflyte was more of symbolic why by the end of the seventies there was this anti disco backlash..mainly in the states..producers, real musicians had taken over the format..not that it wasnt good music..as you can convince yourself here, but somehow too establishment ..and formulised....finally the last big discobang no one could resist, Lipsync better known as Lipps Inc., in fact they led in a new kind of disco..even though they never got over their megahit and thus became a one hit wonder..Funkytown...simple and catchy, in a way the answer to the big hit the year before, M's PopMuzik.

Gaynor was a singer with the Soul Satisfiers, a jazz/pop band, in the 1960s. Her first solo single was "She'll Be Sorry/Let Me Go Baby" (1965).Her first real success came in 1975 with the release of her album Never Can Say Goodbye, which established her as a disco artist. The first side of this album consisted of three disco songs ("Honey Bee", "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Reach Out, I'll Be There"), with no breaks in between the songs. This 19-minute dance marathon proved to be enormously popular, especially at dance clubs. All three songs were released as singles via radio edits, and all of them became hits. This album was so instrumental in introducing disco music to the public, that many later believed that Gloria Gaynor had been the first artist to record disco music. "Never Can Say Goodbye" became the first song to top Billboard magazine's dance chart. So, in that sense, she was the first. Capitalizing on the success of her first album, Gloria Gaynor quickly released her second album Experience Gloria Gaynor later that same year. While this album was also successful, it was not quite as popular as her previous album in the mainstream.

For the next few years, Gloria Gaynor would only enjoy a few moderate hits. However, in late 1978, with the release of her album Love Tracks, she climbed the pop charts again because of her song "I Will Survive". Interestingly, it was originally the B-side when Polydor Records released it in late 1978. The A-side, a song called "Substitute", was considered to be more "radio friendly." Boston Radio DJ Jack King turned the record over and recalls being stunned by what he heard. "I couldn't believe they were burying this monster hit on the B-side", says King. "I played it and played it and my listeners went nuts." This audience response forced the record company to flip the songs, so that subsequent copies of the single listed the more popular song on the A-side. "I Will Survive". was awarded the first and only Grammy Award for Best Disco Recording in 1980

In 1980 and again in 1981, Gaynor released two disco albums which were virtually ignored in the US due to the backlash against disco, which began late in 1979. Surprisingly, neither albums' singles registered on Urban contemporary radio, where disco music remained popular. In 1982, she became a Christian and began to distance herself from a past she considered to be sinful. She would not release an album in 1982. In 1983, she released an album entitled Gloria Gaynor, in which she rejected disco for mid-tempo R&B and Pop style songs.

Gaynor would achieve her final success in the '80s with the release of her album I Am Gloria Gaynor in 1984. This was mainly due to the song "I Am What I Am", which became a hit at dance clubs, it made Gaynor a gay icon. However, her career went into sharp decline following this hit. She returned to the recording studio in 2002, releasing her first album in over 15 years, entitled, I Wish You Love. The two singles released from the album, "Just Keep Thinking About You" and "I Never Knew", both topped Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play. After almost 30 years of its release, Gaynor continues to ride the success of "I Will Survive", touring the country and the world over and performing her signature song on dozens of TV shows.

Sandy Torano spotted Howard Johnson singing in a local Miami Bar , they hit it off and together they formed Niteflyte in 1977. Niteflyte became an American disco group, but with the pretension of making real music with quality musicians and so on their debut album, co produced by 'Styx (!) producer Barry Mraz, you find among others David Sanborn and the Brecker Brothers doing their thing. They released an album on Ariola Records in 1979, which peaked at #59 on the Billboard Black Albums chart, and a single, "If You Want It", which hit #37 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Howard stayed with the group until the early '80's when he signed with A & M Records as a solo artist. His debut solo album, 'Keepin' Love New'

01 - All About Love (4:35)02 - If You Want It (4:23)03 - Sunshine (5:44)04 - Make It Right (5:01)

Lipps Inc (pronounced like "lip sync") was a studio band that achieved one significant hit, "Funkytown" in 1980. The song is considered, by some, the last disco song to hit #1 in the U.S.

The group was formed in Minneapolis by Steven Greenberg, who wrote and produced all of the group's music, and who also played several musical instruments. Multi instrumentalist Greeenberg had played in several bands and had been trying to secure a production deal. He finally caught the interest of casablanca Records with a disco track called "Rock It".Casablanca asked Greenberg for a full album and he gathered a cast of sessionplayers that initially included David Rifkin, guitarist Tom Riopelle and Terry Grant on bass. Most importantly, he recruited lead vocalist Cynthia Johnson, former miss Black Minnasota. Mouth to Mouth was released in 1980, when Funkytown was released as the second single it became an instant hit. It spent 4 weeks at no 1 in the US and a major hit around the world.

Their further singles failed to match their initial success (their only other Hot 100 entry was "Rock It", which peaked at #64), The six-song release Pucker Up followed, featuring a disco remake of the British pub rock group Ace's hit ballad "How Long." which reached #4 on the U.S. dance chart. The album however didn't attract too much attention, and neither did the next Lipps Inc. full-length, Designer Music. The group released their final full-length album, 4 in 1983 it didn't cause a stir and Cynthia Johnson left for good that year. subsequently Lipps Inc. threw in the towel. Greenberg eventually moved into web design, and owns a profitable company still based in Minneapolis.

01 - Funkytown (7:49)02 - All Night Dancing (8:16)

03 - Rock It (5:38)04 - Power (8:10)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !